Watching these armed screeching MAGA COVIDiots clusterfuck themselves and the rest of us into further prolonged death and confinement reminds me once again how we have failed as a nation to inculcate our citizenry with a sense of civic duty, civic responsibility, and civic pride.
The irony of the “Make America Great Again” crowd representing everything about America that makes her awful is not lost on me. Why do these government-hating, conspiracy-mongering, flag-waving, God-fearing, gun-toting “Patriots” hate We the People so much?
Captain Kirk Gets “We the People”
In the classic Star Trek episode, “The Omega Glory,” Kirk and crew find themselves caught between two warring tribes, the Yangs and the Kohms. They discover that their culture has been derived from a mis-reading of the US Constitution. In the final act, Kirk reveals the true meaning of what the Yangs had called “E Plebnista.”
“These three words, written larger than the rest, with a special pride never written before or since. Tall words, proudly saying, ‘We the People.’ That which you call ‘E Plebnista’ was not written for the chiefs or the kings or the warrior or the rich or the powerful but for all the people. Down the centuries you have slurred the meaning of the words, ‘We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution.'”
Star Trek, “The Omega Glory,” written by Gene Roddenberry
So why is it these MAGA flag-wavers oppose everything about our very founding?
“We the People.”
Not because the king said so. Not because a cleric told us God said so. Not because centuries of tradition said so. Because we said so.
Sure, at the time of the founding, “we” was pretty narrowly defined. The beauty of America is that all the words following these three are intent on expanding who “we” are.
It’s the most important part of what it means to be American, those tall words. It was a boast to the world that we could govern ourselves. Why do these redhats so oppose the government we’ve elected all these decades, especially when so many undemocratic concessions made in our founding, like the representation by acreage in the Senate and the Electoral College, grant them disproportionate power? Why are they so quick to cede their state’s power to the whims of the mad orange king?
“Of the United States.”
All of us. Not of the red states, not of the blue states. You don’t see them protesting Kentucky taking money from the federal pie that New York is contributing. You don’t see them with “Support the Troops From Red States” bumper stickers (yet).
But during our time of need, they’re supporting a president who is openly pitting the states against one another, apparently favoring the ones that benefit him electorally, and demanding tributes from the ones that don’t?
“In order to form a more perfect union.”
God knows it ain’t perfect by any stretch. But it is being perfected, generation after generation. We the People of the United States decided it was better for us to work together to get along than to be thirteen individual nations.
If you believe that the point of our founding is to continue to perfect our Union, then there is no point in our past to replicate that would make us greater than we are now. They can only “Make America Great Again” if they believe that since some point (1860 or 1941, judging by some of their flags) America has begun to suck.
America in the 21st century is the greatest it has ever been for the most Americans. It was less great before 2015 for gay couples, before 1990 for disabled people, before 1965 for black voters, before 1920 for women voters, and so many more. It still has yet to become greater for transgender people, incarcerated people, homeless people, and so many more. If they’d have gone with “Make America Great” that actually would’ve been a patriotic sentiment.
“Establish justice.”
Justice means “rule of law.” We the People decided that we weren’t subject to the whims of a king or revelations of a prophet. We would judge with reason and check with appeals the matters of living.
Governors issuing stay-at-home orders aren’t tyrants acting against the cause of the people in service of ulterior motives. They are the people we elected under the rule of law to enact lawful policies designed to fulfill the rest of the reasons We the People established our nation.
“Ensure domestic tranquility.”
Under the rule of law we have a government tasked with maintaining peace and calm in our land. Emergency room doctors overwhelmed with dying patients, dead bodies in refrigerated trucks, and digging of mass graves is far from fucking tranquil.
So is marching as an armed force (protestors use words, armies use guns) in defiance of just orders from elected officials and scientific knowledge about the deadliness and infectiousness of this disease, knowing that act will endanger the lives of We the People of the United States.
“Provide for the common defense.”
These armed people march in support of a Commander-In-Chief who had an aircraft carrier captain sacked for warning about his ship’s vulnerability due to an outbreak of coronavirus among his sailors. Before that, he has expressed support for murderous dictators and fractured relationships with our greatest allies.
This is the hardest treachery of the MAGA crowd for my Gen-X raised-in-the-Cold-War hate-the-Evil-Empire brain to accept. To be excited about increases in spending for bullets and bombs while COVID-19 kills as many Americans in a few weeks as the Viet Cong killed over 19 years exposes MAGA for the unAmerican frauds they are.
“Promote the general welfare.”
Not protect the general welfare, but to actively promote the general welfare. We the People established a government to enact policies to make life better for us. Right now, that policy is stay the fuck at home so we don’t infect We the People and ruin our general welfare.
These COVIDiots act as if they’re being singled out to not be allowed haircuts or dinners out or days at the ballpark or nights at the club. This is a shared sacrifice by We the People to promote the general welfare.
“Secure the blessings of liberty.”
Ah, liberty, that’s where the MAGA crowd’s ears perk up. They feel their liberty has been infringed by a tyrannical government… as they march locked-and-loaded with battlefield weapons and body armor unmolested on the steps of their capitols and elected officials’ lawns.
Much like their selective reading of one amendment in the entire Bill of Rights, MAGA do not understand that the government securing the blessings of liberty comes after establishing justice, ensuring tranquility, providing common defense, and promoting general welfare. You don’t have the liberty to murder, it’s unjust; or blast AC/DC at 3 in the morning, it’s not tranquil; or sell nuke codes to Putin, it threatens our defense; or expose the rest of us to harmful pathogens; it threatens our welfare.
“To ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution.”
We the People didn’t enter into this social contract just for ourselves, but to guarantee we would have a future.
We the People have faced tougher times than these, from the Slavery War* to the Depression, from World War II to 9/11. These MAGA snowflakes are freaking out because their wives’ roots are showing and nails need filling and they had no idea how much of a terror their brats are to public school teachers. Their liberty to pursue happiness is going to cost some of our lives. It’s a uniquely American tragedy that goes against everything for which America was founded.
* Sorry, there’s nothing “civil” about committing treason against the United States for the purpose of maintaining the enslavement of human beings. It was a war over slavery. It should be called that.
